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Juan Marichal pitched 16 years, won 243 games and played alongside Hall of Famers Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, and Orlando Cepeda. Despite all this the Dominican Dandy made only one World Series appearance.

That came in Game 4 of the 1962 Fall Classic against the defending champion New York Yankees. Playing before a sellout crowd of 66,607 at Yankee Stadium he squared off against 1961 World Series MVP Whitey Ford.

Marichal was brilliant. Through the first four innings he allowed only two hits while striking out four.

In the top of the 5th with his Giants leading 2-0, Marichal came to bat with runners on first and third and one out. Most fans expected San Francisco skipper Alvin Dark to have the .161 career hitter bunt. Instead Marichal took the first two pitches that were out of the strike zone.

George Kell and Joe Garagiola called the game on the radio broadcast. “So far Marichal has given no indication he’s going to bunt the ball,” Hall of Fame third baseman Kell said as Ford got ready for the third pitch. As if on cue to defy Kell, Marichal squared to bunt then took the ball high.

Taking all the way on the 3-and-0 pitch, Marichal watched the next offering go right down the middle. He then tipped a Ford fastball into catcher Elston Howard’s mitt to run the count full.

On the payoff pitch, Marichal turned to bunt. As the ball hit the bat and went foul for the strikeout, Marichal recoiled.

From the booth 1991 Ford Frick Award recipient Garigiola made the call, “It looks like it may have hit him…Looks like the ball hit his hand. It’s his pitching hand. And he’s shaking it on his way back toward the Giant dugout.”

The ball did indeed hit Marichal’s throwing hand. The result was a badly bruised the index finger and the loss of his fingernail. Unable to pitch, Marichal’s day was finished. The Dominican Dandy never again appeared in a Fall Classic contest.

The Giants won the game 7-3. Don Larsen got the win against his former team in the same stadium he pitched his World Series perfect game exactly six years earlier.

Shown here is a ticket allowing one lucky fan into Juan Marichal’s only World Series appearance. In addition to signing it, the pitcher added the inscription, “4 IP, 0 R”.

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Juan Marichal and Warren Spahn faced each other in what many consider the greatest game ever pitched. The two men entered the July 2 contest in 1963 with a combined record of 23-6. The 15,921 in attendance at San Francisco’s Candlestick Park witnessed a pitching marvel.

The Braves lineup included Hall of Fame sluggers Hank Aaron and Eddie Mathews. The duo combined for career home runs. 1,267 career home runs. In the Giants order order there were three Cooperstown hitters. Willies Mays and McCovey along with Orlando Cepeda tallied 1,560 career long balls.

For the first 15 innings the two pitchers quieted the batters almost completely. Four hours, ten minutes after the first pitch, the home team emerged with a sixteen-inning 1-0 victory. Both Hall of Fame hurlers went the distance.

Tough-luck loser Spahn held the Giants scoreless for the game’s first 15 innings. He scattered 9 hits and allowed just one walk – intentional – to Willie Mays. The left-hander threw 201 pitches.

Marichal delighted the San Francisco faithful by recording more strikeouts (10) than hits (8). In the 227-pitch shutout he allowed only 5 batters to reach second base. None reached third.

The game was decided on Spahn’s final pitch that the Say Hey kid slammed over the left field wall, mercifully ending the marathon pitching duel.

Shown here is a photo signed by Spahn. It commemorates his 300th victory and shows four others to reach the statistical milestone. Cooperstown’s Cy Young, Christy Mathewson, Lefty Grove and Walter Johnson are also pictured.

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Hall of Fame hurler Juan Marichal is remembered for his high leg kick and and high-octane pitching performances. He’s also remembered for an infamous brawl he touched off on August 22, 1965.

The incident came in a game against the Giants’ most-hated rivals, the Los Angeles Dodgers. In the contest the two teams traded brushback pitches before Marichal led off the San Francisco side of the third inning.

After taking strike one, Marichal looked at a low and inside pitch that Dodger catcher Johnny Roseboro allowed to drop. The Dodger backstop then moved behind Marichal to return the ball to Los Angeles pitcher Sandy Koufax.

Instead of lightly tossing the ball back to his pitcher, Roseboro fired it back, brushing Marichal’s ear.

Incensed, Marichal raised his bat over his head, turned to Roseboro, and clobbered him over the head with the lumber. Both benches emptied and the brawl was on.

The fight lasted 14 minutes before peacemakers Koufax and Willie Mays restored order. Marichal was ejected; Roseboro was sent to the clubhouse for medical attention. The Dodger catcher’s wound courtesy of Marichal’s bat required 14 stitched to close.

The ump calling balls and strikes that day was Shag Crawford. He got an up-close view of it all.

In the collection is this letter from Crawford about the incident. The arbiter writes, “Juan Marichal thought Johnny Roseboro threw too close to his head returning the ball to Koufax. It turned out to be a nasty afternoon. I was at the bottom of the pile and came up with a few bruises.

“These incidents happen often in baseball it’s my job to quell them if you can. It wasn’t a very good night for the game of baseball playing a game with policemen encircling the whole park, and that was the way it finished.”

The letter offers a first-hand glimpse into one of baseball’s worst brawls.

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The Year of the Pitcher in 1968 produced some of the greatest mound performances since the Deadball Era. Hurlers in both leagues reached feats never before seen.

In the AL, Detroit’s Denny McLain became baseball’s first 30-game winner since Dizzy Dean in 1934. Cleveland’s Luis Tiant topped the Juior circuit with a 1.60 ERA and 8.5 WAR.

Over in the National League Bob Gibson posted a 1.12 ERA, the lowest in the Live Ball Era. His 13 shutout were the most since Walter Johnson in 1916.

For Los Angeles, Don Drysdale authored six-straight shutouts. In the process he twirled 58 2/3 consecutive scoreless frames to break the Big Train’s mark.

With all the outstanding work turned in by the legendary moundsmen, it was Juan Marichal who led all National Leaguers with 26 victories. Marichal’s 30 complete games were the most in all the majors while his 325 2/3 innings was surpassed only by McLain.

An image of a smiling Marichal adorns this 1968 Topps offering shown above. Marichal had his remarkable season was in the midst of  a run of eight consecutive All Star appearances and nine in ten years.

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Juan Marichal won 20 or more games six times during the 1960s. His 191 wins during the decades are the most of any big league hurler.

Second on the list is Cardinals pitcher Bob Gibson who earned 164 victories. From there only Don Drysdale (158), and Jim Bunning (150) earned as many as 150 wins.

Marichal’s six 20-win campaigns came from 1963 through 1969. During the seven-year run he averaged 22 wins, 23 complete games, 5 shutouts, and 6.9 WAR  per season to go along with a 2.34 ERA.

Over the entire decade Marichal pitched to a 2.57 ERA and tallied 197 complete games, 45 shutouts, and 55.3 WAR in addition to his 191 victories.

Shown here is the 1974 players contract for the runner-up on the wins list for the 1960s, Bob Gibson.

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The last of Juan Marichal’s six 20-win campaigns came in 1969. The season capped an incredible decade for the Dominican Dandy. In a show of pure dominance, the Giants workhorse topped all big league pitchers in wins (191), complete games (197), and shutouts (45) during the 60s.

Though his effectiveness declined in the 1970s, Marichal climbed baseball’s all-time pitching lists.

The ticket above allowed admission to a May 10, 1970 Giants contest against the New York Mets. Marichal started for San Francisco against New York’s Nolan Ryan.

The Express was not at his best. He allowed 7 earned runs before being his night ended ten outs into his outing. Marichal went the distance for the complete-game win.

The game marked Marichal’s 192nd career victory. That tied pushed him past Jim Whitney, and Dutch Leonard.

Largely forgotten today, 19th-century hurler Whitney won 30+ games twice and reached the 20-win plateau five times. He finished with 56.0 WAR.

Twenty-year veteran Leonard was one of baseball’s greatest knuckleball pitchers. An All Star in five seasons, Leonard got the win the day Lou Gehrig made his “luckiest man on the face of the earth” speech.

Marichal’s 192nd triumph also tied him with 5-time All Star Lon Warneke, the only man to pitch and umpire in both the World Series and the All Star Game.

By going the distance in the contest, Marichal completed his 198th game. That moved him past Bob Shawkey and Hall of Fame hurler Rube Marquard.

The winning pitcher in the first game in the House the Ruth Built, Shawkey held the Yankees’ single-game strikeout record for 59 years. A four-time 20-game winner for New York, Shawkey pitched for six pennant winners and the 1923 World Series champions.

Cooperstown’s Marquard won 73 games for the pennant-winning Giants of 1911, ’12, and ’13. In the middle season of his run he put together an incredible 19 consecutive victories.

Marichal retired six years later after the 1975 season with 243 career victories and 244 complete games.

He signed the above ticket and added the inscription, “Win 192”.

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Despite his Hall of Fame achievements, Juan Marichal made only two postseason appearances. This first came in an abbreviated World Series start in 1962. His second came in the 1971 NLCS.

Both outings were outstanding.

In Game 3 of the ’71 Championship Series, Marichal faced off against Danny Murtaugh’s Eastern Division champion Pirates. In a complete-game effort he stymied the Pittsburgh offense, holding them to just four hits.

Unfortunately for Marichal, two of the four left the year. A 2nd-inning blast by Bob Robertson and an 8th-inning wallop by Richie Hebner doomed the Giants who lost 2-1.

In two October starts, the Dominican Dandy struck out 10 and walked 2 in 12 innings of work. Despite a 1.50 ERA, the hard-luck pitcher saw his team drop both games.

The contract shown above is signed for Marichal to play in the golf tournament in Arizona. He hit the links two months before embarking on the 1971 campaign that resulted in his final postseason appearance.  In exchange for playing golf he receives, “guaranteed first class transportation from and to his home, plus a minimum of $350 for hotel and other expenses incurred.”

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The New York Giants began as a National League franchise in 1883. Their long and proud history is dotted with World Series championships and Hall of Fame players.

In 1958 the franchise relocated to San Francisco. Their third season in the City by the Bay featured Juan Marichal’s big league debut. Over the next 14 seasons the Dominican Dandy became the greatest pitcher since the team’s move west.

Though New York Giants Christy Mathewson and Carl Hubbell rank ahead of Marichal on most categories on the all-time franchise list, Marichal holds the San Francisco record for starts, innings, strikeouts, wins, complete games, shutouts, and WAR.

In 1975 the Giants recognized Marichal’s greatness by retiring his #27. With that he became the first San Francisco pitcher to receive the honor and the second in franchise history after Hubbell.

Shown here is a 1933 Goudey baseball card signed by  two-time MVP and 1933 World Series champion Carl Hubbell.

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Juan Marichal gained baseball immortality when he was enshrined into Cooperstown in 1983. He was joined on the induction stage by Brooks Robinson, Walter Alston, and George Kell.

Alston managed the Dodgers to their only Brooklyn World Series title in 1955. By the time he retired in 1976, Alston’s teams boasted seven NL pennants and four World Fall Classic titles.

Like Alston, third baseman Kell was a Veterans Committee pick. The 1949 batting champ was a 10-time All Star with a .306 lifetime average. Writers’ choice Marichal was joined by first-ballot selection Robinson. The induction came on July 21, 1983. 

Shown here is a photo of third basemen Robinson and Kell, Cooperstown class of ’83.